Lightsworn: Maximizing your Holy Paladin for Timewalking

The first Timewalking weekend has come and gone, and after diving back into Burning Crusade classics like Shattered Halls and the Arcatraz, I have to say: Timewalking is a blast.

The next Timewalking weekend will be July 17-21, featuring Wrath of the Lich King dungeons. Like before, the major draw will be the event quest, which rewards a precious Seal of Inevitable Fate. This is in addition to the three Seals you can normally acquire each week, so any player serious about maximizing their 6.2 loot chances should definitely take part!

Timewalking dungeons also drop item level 660 gear for level 100 characters, making them a great option for alts or for catching up if you’re behind on gear. Tanaan can be a scary place, and grabbing some Timewalking upgrades might be just what you need to survive out there among the fel orcs, demons, and arakkoa running around everywhere.

Not level 100 yet? No problem! As long as you’re at least level 80, Timewalking scaling will ensure you’ll be right on par with everyone else. And any drops you get will be adjusted to your actual level, so you’ll be able to continue using them even after you’ve finished and exited the dungeon!

Dress for success

One of the coolest things about Timewalking is that we’re free to mix-and-match gear pieces from different expansions. For the upcoming event weekend, anything at least item level 200 (the item level of Wrath heroic dungeons) will work. So go ahead and break out your old tier sets (you have been holding onto them for transmog, right?), get Val’anyr out of storage, shake the dust off Jina-Kang — the possibilities are endless!

Now, keep in mind that you absolutely do not need special gear for Timewalking. The first weekend, I just used my regular gear and everything went smoothly. But I think coming up with a special Timewalking outfit is a really fun idea! This time around I fully intend to equip my old Legendaries and see what kind of awesome set I can come up with.

Stat Priority
I suggest getting as much Critical Strike and Haste as possible. In the Burning Crusade Timewalking dungeons, damage was usually pretty light, but there were definitely some spiky moments where I was spamming Flash of Light as fast as I could. This is only natural — we should expect some unnecessary damage as players mess up dangerous mechanics they’ve long forgotten, or have actually never encountered before at all!

Spirit
Spirit seemed scaled pretty generously. In Blackrock Foundry gear, my mana never dipped below 50% or so. And Warlords of Draenor gear only has Spirit on jewellery, back, and trinket slots, so if you’re using older pieces where Spirit was on everything, you really shouldn’t run into any mana issues.

Gems
An extra gem here or there won’t be a dealbreaker, but if you’ve got the sockets available, you may as well use them! Intellect gems will be your best option, but mix in some hybrid gems too to hit those socket bonuses. And if you’re using a pre-Warlords belt, don’t forget a belt buckle!

In terms of gem benefits, Hellscream’s Warmace, a Throne of Thunder socketed weapon with Wrathion’s special bonus socket, or one of the Sha-Touched weapons with a Sha-Touched gem will be our best options. However, if you don’t have one of these available, relax. Any socketed weapon will be perfectly adequate, and it’s really not worth spending thousands of gold purchasing a new Eye of the Black Prince or Sha gem just for Timewalking — you’ll be fine without them.

Tier Sets

Tier sets are where things start to get really fun. Do we go with a 4-piece set from Wrath? Combine a Cataclysm 2-piece bonus with a Mists of Pandaria 2-piece bonus? So many options!

Here’s a look at our potential Timewalking tier sets, and how you can acquire them these days. Remember that you can mix-and-match 10/25-person pieces from the same set, and likewise with LFR/Normal/Heroic/Mythic pieces.

• Tier 7: Redemption (Naxxramas/Obsidian Sanctum)
• Tier 8: Aegis (Ulduar)
• Tier 9: Liadrin’s/Turalyon’s (Gold)
• Tier 10: Lightsworn (Gold)
• Tier 11: Reinforced Sapphirium (Bastion of Twilight/Blackwing Descent/Gold)
• Tier 12: Immolation (Firelands/Gold)
• Tier 13: Radiant Glory (Dragon Soul)
• Tier 14: White Tiger (Heart of Fear/Terrace of Endless Spring)
• Tier 15: Lightning Emperor (Throne of Thunder)
• Tier 16: Winged Triumph (Siege of Orgrimmar)
• Tier 17: Guiding Light (Blackrock Foundry)
• Tier 18: Ceaseless Vigil (Hellfire Citadel)

Looking over our options, we can see that a lot of our old tier bonuses…actually aren’t that great for Timewalking. Some are (understandably) intended for use in larger groups, while others provide bonus Spirit or mana savings, which we won’t really need. Some of them even affect spells that don’t exist anymore!

We do still have some nice choices, though. The Aegis Regalia benefits aren’t bad, and the same goes for Liadrin’s/Turalyon’s Garb. But the real champion is Siege of Orgrimmar’s Vestments of Winged Triumph.

The 2-piece bonus is nice, but the 4-piece bonus will be amazing for Timewalking. As far as I know, set bonuses don’t scale down, so an extra +250 Mastery at Wrath gear levels is going to be ridiculous.

But wait! Let’s throw Sanctified Wrath and Glyph of Merciful Wrath into the mix. Now Avenging Wrath lasts 30 seconds, with a 60 second cooldown. A 50% uptime on our wings, during which we’ll have that mind-boggling extra +250 Mastery at level 80 gear levels? Yes please.

PVP Sets

If you don’t have any old tier sets and/or don’t want to do any farming, don’t forget about our PVP sets! The Wrath and Mists PVP sets are both easy to get and will be quite strong in Timewalking dungeons.

Arena Season 5: Savage Gladiator’s Redemption
The Wrath PVP set gives a decent bonus to Holy Shock healing, and an impressive +100 Intellect, which is a significant amount at level 80 gear levels! Additionally, the gloves also provide a small bonus to our Flash of Light critical effect chance. Not bad at all. You can buy this set in Dalaran, with the cheapest 4 pieces costing a total of 391 gold.

Crafted Dreadful Gladiator’s Redemption
If you’d rather have a set bonus that livens up your healing playstyle, the crafted Mists PVP set is a solid choice. It’s got the same buff to Holy Shock, and getting a free Holy Power with every Flash of Light is actually really fun. Plus, the set looks great! You can get 4 pieces crafted for 50 Ghost Iron Bars.

Dungeon Tips

For the most part, the dungeons themselves will be fairly straightforward. You won’t need a second Beacon of Light, so take Saved by the Light as a bit of backup insurance. Other than that, your normal talents and glyphs will be fine. Use your cooldowns liberally, stun enemies whenever possible to help your tank, and make sure you move quickly out of fire or whirlwinds — these mechanics hurt a lot at the proper gear levels!

Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom
Lots of ramps and stairways here, so be careful about of line of sight. The trash packs after Prince Taldaram were particularly dangerous back in the day — be ready to bust out healing cooldowns if things get out of control.

On Taldaram, you can Divine Shield his Embrace of the Vampyr. And on Herald Volazj, absolutely nothing strange or unusual happens and you shouldn’t worry about it. By the way, have I mentioned how crucial it is to always keep yourself alive at all costs, and that you shouldn’t hesitate to spam heals on yourself or Divine Shield if things get a little scary?

Gundrak
This may sound silly, but as soon as you zone in, jump to the bottom of the stairwell immediately. Over the years I’ve seen countless overeager tanks get annihilated on the trash in the first room because the healer wasn’t down there yet. Remember to activate the altars after each boss, and don’t linger in the water — those hostile fish will kill you.

Halls of Lightning
This dungeon has two mini gauntlets, both of which used to be quite dangerous. The Slags after General Bjarngrim explode on death, so if your group merrily AOEs them down, be ready for a few player deaths as the Slags all explode simultaneously. The other gauntlet is after Volkhan, where statues come to life and attack as you pass by. If your tank hasn’t done Halls of Lightning before, make sure they know about this so they don’t just run through!

The Nexus
On Keristrasza, jump or sidestep every few seconds to minimize Intense Cold. When she casts Crystallize, you can use Cleanse and Hand of Freedom to free people.

The Oculus
Just kidding.

Utgarde Pinnacle
When Svala Sorrowgrave chooses a player to be sacrificed, chip in DPS to help kill the Ritual Channelers. Divine Shield won’t break Svala’s sacrifice, but it will however break King Ymiron’s Screams of the Dead later on.

Timewalking in the future

Timewalking dungeons are a great idea, and most players I’ve talked to really love them. Sadly, it’s a long wait until the next Timewalking weekend, which isn’t until August 14-18. So if you want your nostalgia fix, you’d better get in there next week while you can!